Tonight, we take a trip into the Museum's back catalog...

In an hour or so, the latest edition of the Academy Awards will begin.

We're going to celebrate the occasion with a post from the Museum's back catalog.

Get ready...

Tonight’s the 85^th Academy Awards ceremony, so put on your formals and get ready to wonder who will take home the awards? Will Denzel Washington win for “Flight?” Will “Lincoln” beat out “Amour” for Best Picture? Will “The Avengers” add to the comic-book adaptation’s brag sheet with a Visual Effects nomination? Stay tuned and find out!

But for now, let’s look back at the 72^nd ceremony. Who hosted? Who won? Who had an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction? Get ready to find out, ‘cause we’re taking the DeLorean back to 2000!

83…84…85…86…87…88 MILES PER HOUR!!!!!!!

IN THE YEAR 2000…Billy Crystal hosted his ninth ceremony with great aplomb.

“American Beauty” took home five awards:

·         Best Picture

·         Best Director (Sam Mendes)

·         Best Actor (Kevin Spacey)

·         Best Original Screenplay (Alan Ball)

·         Best Cinematography (Conrad L. Hall)

“American Beauty” did not win Best Actress (Annette Bening) or Best Original Score (Thomas Newman). Those awards, respectively, went to Hilary Swank for “Boys Don’t Cry” and “The Red Violin” (John Corigliano).

“The Matrix,” that other great surprise of 1999, won four:

•          Best Sound Editing (Dane Davis)
•          Best Sound Mixing (John T. Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, David E. Campbell and David Lee)
•          Best Film Editing (Zach Staenberg), beating out “American Beauty”
•          Best Visual Effects (John Gaeta, Janek Sirrs, Jon Thum and Steve Courtley)

Phil Collins’ “You’ll Be in my Heart,” from Disney’s adaptation of “Tarzan,” beat out Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s “Blame Canada” from “South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut,” which Robin Williams memorably and hilariously performed.

Tim Burton’s “Sleepy Hollow” won for Best Art Direction. Its award was a joint win for Rick Heinrich’s art direction (you may recognize his name from “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” for which he served as a visual consultant) and Peter Young’s set decoration.

“Topsy-Turvy,” a movie about the production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Mikado,” won for Best Makeup (Christine Blundell and Trefor Proud) and Best Costume Design (the ironically-named Lindy Hemming—you know, like hemming-in clothing. Hello? Can I get some laughs? No? Ah, please yourselves, then.).

Michael Caine and Angelina Jolie took home Best Supporting Actor and Actress (“The Cider House Rules” and “Girl, Interrupted,” respectively).

There were many, many more awards handed out that night. Please go to http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/72nd.html for more information!